Hey, didn't we give blivet** a yacht last year? Why wasn't IT used in the

[Sydnie]

rescue efforts? I am sure that it could sleep and feed many and even allow for a communication hub for the rescue efforts. A floating "high water - situation room". Communications would have been stellar compared to what they had on the ground, probably still would be better than what some still have. It would have allowed for a direct line from the ground to the WH and all government agencies. After all, we know that blivet** could never be without that line of communication, no matter what type of vehicle/location he would be in.

Why wasn't the yacht used and why isn't it being used now?

At the very least, it might have justified the expense to the taxpayers for that white elephant of a perk.

[annabanana]

1. good catch!

Yeah.. Where the heck IS that yacht anyway?

[Canuckistanian]

2. What yacht? I don't remember this

You mean, like an official presidential yacht? Paid for by tax dollars?

Is it like Navy One or something? Or maybe the royal yacht Britannia?

[Sydnie]

3. An official presidential yacht

I think it was announced right after the election last year that he was refurbishing the presidential yacht. It might have already existed but had not been used for some time. I was so outraged by it then that I made my answering machine message about the raping of social security funds and privitzation plans and finished up the message with the question "And just why does the president need a yacht when so many need help care?"

edited to add - there should be photoshoped pictures of those "OurLeader" billbooards around here somewhere that say "Thanks For The Yacht". It was that time frame - right after the election.

[Canuckistanian]

14. Ah, now I get it

I saw the * billboard pic that says, "Thanks for the Yacht", but I didn't get it.

[Sydnie]

5. From USA TODAY dated 11/24/04

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-11-21-budget-bill-extras_x.htm

The $388 billion spending bill that cleared Congress on Saturday and will head to President Bush for his signature has 11,772 earmarked special projects totaling $15.8 billion, according to the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. Among them:
$25,000 for the study of mariachi music in Nevada's Clark County School District.
$225,000 for the National Wild Turkey Federation in South Carolina.
$1 million for the Missouri Pork Producers Federation to convert animal waste into energy.
$75,000 for renovating the Merry Go Round Playhouse in Auburn, N.Y.
$100,000 for a weather museum in Punxsutawney, Pa.
$800,000 for "soybean rust research" in Ames, Iowa.
$75,000 for "hides and leather research" in Wyndmoor, Pa.
$1,593 for potato storage in Madison, Wis.
$1 million for a world birding center, Texas.
$150,000 to pay for beaver management and damage in Wisconsin.
$200,000 for the American Cotton Museum in Greenville, Texas.
$100,000 for a swimming pool in Ottawa, Kan.
$70,000 for a "Paper Industry International Hall of Fame" in Appleton, Wis.
$1.5 million for the Rep. Richard Gephardt Archive at the Missouri Historical Society.
$2 million for the government to buy back the presidential yacht USS Sequoia, sold in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter to demonstrate frugality.

[Not Me]

4. Here it is...

[Sydnie]

6. Official site

http://www.sequoiayacht.com/
<snip>
The Sequoia Presidential Yacht is a meticulously restored, 104-foot, 1925 Trumpy-designed yacht that has served Presidents since Herbert Hoover. The yacht is a national historic landmark that is available for exclusive charters in Washington, D.C. (when it is not used by the President or Vice President)
<snip>

Where does the charter money go, or is it just used to raise re-election funds?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

7. Yep! The good ole country boy from New Haven needed this little boat....

[Semi_subversive]

8. Does it have a trolling motor?

[jmowreader]

10. Yeah. Thirty unmasked freepers with hands tied to the stern

We pants 'em, throw 'em in the water, secure them to the stern of the yacht, tell 'em there are Pecker Eating Piranhas in the Potomac and if they kick reeeeeeeeeeal hard they can drive 'em off, and relax with a fishing pole and a cool drink as the freepers propel the yacht at speeds up to nine miles per hour.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

11. jmowreadeer

:spray: you owe me a keyboard! :rofl:

[Sydnie]

13. funniest thing I have read all day! Thanks! n/t

:rofl:

[Semi_subversive]

15. Never give up our dreams!

[jmowreader]

9. The yacht thing never went through

And it's not because the idea of buying a fucking YACHT for our little dictator was abhorrent to the Congress. They let him spend as much as he wants on anything he wants (like wars, vacations, tax cuts for his friends, flying huge airplanes halfway across the country in the middle of the night to intervene in dying women's families' lives, and other minor expenses), so what's a couple million more between friends?

The deal was never consummated because the Sequoia belongs to a foundation who bought the boat, paid $5 million to restore her, and now charges $10,000 for an event of "up to" four hours--more time comes as an upcharge. Bush came waving $2 million. Now tell me: if you had raised $5 million to restore this little jewel, and were making $10,000 a day with her, would you let her go for $2 million? Well, neither would the people who own the yacht.

[Sydnie]

12. See post 6 above

from the official site - it states that they use this yacht (president and vice president). Could it be a case of, they paid $2,000,000 for the privilege of commandering it when ever they have a "function" themselves? Some fat cats they want to impress?

Do you have a resource to cite for the return of those budgeted funds back to the general funds? I never heard that it didn't go through.

[jmowreader]

16. They may NOT have returned the funds

It costs ten grand a day to use this boat, and every Republican president (oh yeah, Shrub too) has rented the boat for various functions.

What I think the Bushies were going for is a modified eminent-domain thing: the Bushies offer the Sequoia Foundation $2 million for the yacht (when your property is confiscated through eminent domain, you never get as much as it's worth) and the Sequoia Foundation turns over the title to it because they're so patriotic they'll just hand over the keys and forget that they spent $5 billion just to restore it!

In reality, I'd rather they buy the Bush boy a new yacht if they're going to buy him one at all. Advantages of a new yacht:

* two new engines with new machinery
* new heat exchangers
* new filter systems
* new generators
* new electronics
* can be equipped to meet ADA standards (the ADA was written specifically to exclude the Sequoia from compliance because of its status as a historical landmark)
* gives millions of dollars to several American firms--the yacht company, the engine company and the electronics company among others
* can be equipped with a communications suite similar to the one on Air Force One without damaging the yacht's historical character, and the communications tower on all new yachts is a perfect place to mount SATCOM antennas
* can be taken out in the ocean without worrying about fucking it up--the Sequoia is restricted to the Potomac River--and this is good because they can use it as a floating command post anywhere along the coastline